Art+Life Online
Fascinated by Fascination + Obsessed with Obsession
The Public Trust: East Dallas Gallery Day June 16, 2012 (12-9 PM) →
East Dallas Gallery Day is a unified effort by 8 established galleries located in the neighborhoods of Deep Ellum and Expo Park, to kick off the Summer and get people in the galleries. The event will take place on June 16, 2012 from 12-9 PM. The participating galleries include Deep Ellum’s
I HOUSE SAT + DOG WATCHED THIS WEEKEND.
Check out the video I made from my road trip to Marfa with Kerry.
Such a great place to get away from everything.
Installing at Galleri Urbane Marfa (Taken with instagram)
Last Saturday I graduated with my Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree in Painting (Summa Cum Laude)! The last week was a very sad time with my painting studio family - we were all so accustomed to being with each other all day every day. All in all, I couldn’t have asked for a better final semester in undergrad. I did something very different for me in my studio practice, but I feel like it payed off more than I could ever have imagined + it will continue to effect my work post-graduation.
So what next?
Well I decided to hold off on applying to graduate school - at the time when applications were due ( last december-feb) I felt like I did not have a very strong portfolio with work that I felt was completely worked out. In hindsight, I am SO glad I decided to wait - as now I feel like I am beginning to catch on to something that I can work on for the next couple of months until the end of this year when I apply for the Fall 2013 semester. I’m not quite sure where to apply yet, though I’ll begin to do my research on schools outside of the state most likely. Other than that, this past semester I have been interning at Galleri Urbane, a contemporary art gallery in Dallas, and now I will be working full-time for them now that school is over. Sooo glad I will be able to stay in the DFW art community AND get paid for it now :) At the end of the summer, I hope to find a loft/studio in Dallas where I can make work + live + be close to my job.
And what better way to start the Summer than with a roadtrip to Marfa this weekend?! Me and Kerry will be heading out at the crack of dawn tomorrow morning for our trip to the small West TX town . Can’t wait to soak in the art + food + night sky. Stay tuned for lots of pictures of our trip.
Well…looks like it’s time to graduate. I will have to write another post about all this end-of-undergraduate-time business, but I just wanted to share the paintings from my Dream Look series. While these are not all of them, these are the ones that have been resolved. Working on this series has taught me more about painting than I ever ever ever could have imagined, and I feel like my ideas of the medium have been completely renewed. So now that school is over, I am excited to continue working on this body of work as I prepare to apply to graduate school this fall/winter. I truly feel this is only the beginning of something.
In order:
Hollywood Smiles, oil on canvas over panel, 48”x48”
Works in 17 Seconds, oil on canvas over panel, 48”x36”
1 Million Sold, oil on panel, 36”x48”
Perfect for Men or Women, oil on canvas, 48”x36”
After Diebenkorn, oil on canvas over panel, 48”x48”
Never Worry About Your Smile Again, oil on canvas over panel, 60”x48”
Artist statement:
Through my work, I address our culture’s obsession with beauty and looks and question the notion that changing one’s physical appearance can make one a better person. My recent work has dealt with topics in the realm of popular culture and mass media and has focused on celebrity and fame. However, recently, I have developed an interest in product advertisement, but more specifically in the advertisements for beauty products. Essentially, it can be presumed that the goal of any advertisement for a good or service is to provoke some sort of feeling of inferiority within the consumer in order to spark a sense of desire. The consumer can only reach satisfaction through purchasing the product, be it satisfaction from either self or societal approval. I am drawn to the beauty product advertisements because I feel they most clearly speak to my interest in these ideas of inferiority and desire that our culture is tied to.
In these paintings, I am able to use paint to edit the advertisements down to the ‘Before & After’ images that, when alone, makes the actual product ambiguous, which in turn makes the fact that a product exists to alter certain physical features seem a bit more bizarre. In the past, my work has been almost exclusively mixed media, with an extensive use of collage; however, for this most recent body of work I have made a return to exclusively using oil paint. I have always been compelled by the images and subject matter used by Andy Warhol and other artists of the Pop movement, though painters like Cy Twombly, Jim Dine, and Robert Rauschenberg have been influential to me through their handling of paint. Through creating a more worked surface that focuses on the utilization of paint, I hope to present the viewer with the images in a way they are not accustomed to seeing in order to encourage them to spend more time with and have a deeper awareness of the information that is usually consumed and accepted at a very fast pace.
May 2012
last night #painting at the school studio. (Taken with instagram)
So long overdue. Haven’t been all semester via I’m always at school. Finally catching Glenn Ligon. #fortworth #fwmodern (Taken with instagram)
Spent 2 days at The Met this past summer and still didn’t see everything. Could roam the galleries forever. #latergram #nyc #themet (Taken with instagram)
